November 30, 2011

Last weekend I travelled to Melbourne to work at the AQM - a trade show for the Australian Patchwork & Quilting industry. It's always great to catch up with other reps, our amazing designers, and to see what's new in the market. It was a great weekend, but it's work - so I didn't get to see any part of Melbourne except for the short walk from the hotel to the convention centre.

May 30, 2011

It was so exciting to see Michele Hill's new fabric line "Morris Meadows" released at Quilt Market at the In The Beginning booth. The range is gorgeous as are the new BOM's that Michele has designed. Michele has a facination with William Morris and a passion to keep the genius of his design alive. She has certainly achieved that with this range. There are 3 colour palettes available:

Rose

Peach

Blue

Michele has also designed 2 new BOM's to go with the range:

Arts & Crafts Sampler - uses the stunning stripe to border the quilt.

Morris Sampler

If you love the fabric but applique is not your thing...then this FREE pieced pattern will be available.

The Morris Meadows range will be available in Australian Stores in November.

May 26, 2011

I'm back in Australia after a wonderful 2 weeks visiting Salt Lake City for Quilt Market followed by a week in New York. It's so good to be back at my computer and go through all of my photos. Sadly I did lose all of my video clips and some photos due to my little "bloggie"having a spak attack and resetting and deleting everything. It's not the end of the world but it is dissappointing as I had taken some great video footage.

I wish I had arrived in Salt Lake City a fews days before market as it looks like such a lovley area to visit. The city is surrounded by snow capped mountains which are only about a 15 minute drive away.

I was fortunate enough to be able to pop in and listen to the Morman Tabernacle Choir during their rehersal night. They are wonderful and a joy to listen to. Salt Lake City has some beautiful parks and the most adorable flowering trees. I'm not sure what variety they were but I just loved them:

Beautiful blossoms

Lovley parks

Tulips everywhere

My photos and video of the Tabernacle Square and the choir have all been lost but I can still remember how beautiful it all was. All the gardens were full of tulips just coming into bloom, something that just doesn't happen here in tropical Brisbane.

Northcott's booth was focused centred on their extremely popular line of fabric called Stonehenge. This beautiful marble print has been a massive seller for them and is getting more popular each market. Their School House session was standing room only as they presented their new panels that match the basic prints.

May 20, 2011

One of my favourite collections that was on display at Quilt Market was the beautiful flannel collection "Winter Palace Flannel" by Maywood Studio. This flannel fabric will be arriving in Australia any day and it is so beautiful. Maywood's flannel fabric is so soft, yet has a beautiful feel to it and sews like a dream. As our Australian weather cools down, flannel quilts are so warm and cuddly to snuggle up in.

Maywood's display involved a selection of quilts made using differnt fabrics from the same range in order to present the varying quilts you can make.

This is a close up of a quilt using the Winter Palace Flannel.

I still have tonnes of photos to show you with many of them having to wait until I get home early next week. Still to come is the new range "Garden Enchantment" by Maywood - lovely rich florals.

May 19, 2011

Hello. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post about quilt market but I've been having trouble with my new sony "bloggie" video camera. My partner's netbook is not recognising it and worse still...it looks like I've lost a whole heap of video clips and photos as on the last day the camera decided to reset itself. So I'm hoping when I get back to Australia that they will still be there...fingers crossed. It's a sick feeling you get when you think that you may have lost about 100 photos and video clips! Not the end of the world though and I do still have some on my point and shoot camera, so all is not lost.

One of the thrills of Quilt Market was meeting Rachel Ashwell from Shabby Chic fame. She has a new line of fabric out...yes Shabby Chic has arrived in the Quilting World. She was lovely and I was thrilled to be able to get her new book there at market and have it signed by Rachel. I have all of her books and this newest release is just as gorgeous as the others.

Rachel's new book:

It was also wonderful to meet Pam from Pam Kitty Morning. Pam's new range of fabric for Lakehouse is lovely and I can't wait to get my sales book.

I was also impressed by how many Aussie's had booths at the show. Below are a few of them:

The lovely Kelly from Don't Look Now. Her booth is always busy and it took me till day three to get a photo with her.

Gail Pan was at her first ever Quilt Market. It is such a huge thing for an Australian Designer to take the plunge and hold a booth at Quilt Market. Well done Gail!

I'm in New York at the moment enjoying some shopping, and sight seeing. The weather is not the best so I'm seeing what New York is like when it rains...not the best! Today was a trip to my favourite store...Anthropolie as well as Pottery Barn, Macy's, Bloomingdales and a huge Barnes & Noble store. Tomorrow I'm meeting my good friend Pam Holland and we are going to see the "Quilts: Masterpieces from the American Folk Art Museum exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum. It's just coincidental that we are both in NY at the same time so I'm sure we will be in for a fun filled day.

I can't wait to get back to Brisbane and download all of my photos and start posting them as I have so much to show you.

June 13, 2010

I have to tell you....I am soooo not cool! Just ask my two children..they will tell you in a heartbeat how "uncool" I am. While in Minneapolis I went to the Wiley book launch at Cosmos at the Graves Hotel with my friend Lynne. This place was so cool and the book launch was for Anna Maria's, Sandi Henderson's and Melissa Averinos's books. Cosmos was a beautiful venue - very sleek, smooth, and classy.

There were tea light candles everywhere....

and this is where my "coolness" came unstuck. The candles were gorgeous, but as you can see...the flame was unprotected, so while I tried with all my might to act cool....the short story is..I was wearing a beautiful LONG scarf and yep...you guessed it....while leaning over to talk to the barman at the cocktail bar...my scarf caught on fire. I was wondering what the "funny smell" was until Lynne started squealing and I realised the funny smell was my scarf...aflame! I did manage to get it off from around my neck and the barman quickly stomped out the fire. All Lynne and I could do was laugh....and laugh....and laugh...hysterically!

June 10, 2010

Northcott has the cutest range called Child's Play with Kate and Nate, which has been designed by Sheri Berry. This range has the sweetest alphabet panel, growth chart and co-ordinating prints. The photo below is "Nate's" collection. The projects you can make with this range are numerous...cot quilt, bumper set, curtains, wall hangings...everything for the nursery.

Nate - The alphabet panel

The growth chart...sweet little "moment" blocks to fill in and use as the backing of the growth chart. Both cm & inches are on the chart.

Some of the matching co-ordinates

"Kate"...The alphabet panel

The growth chart

some of the co-ordinating prints.

I am really enjoying how many of the designers are introducing different textiles into their ranges .... Cotton Voile, knits, linen etc. Northcott has released a small range of pin-wale corduroy to match back with this range. Not only can you use the corduroy in quilts to give it a more tactile feel, you can also make clothing from it. Imagine soft warm pants, jackets, pinafore, skirts etc...just so yummy!

Below are some clothes that are made using the Child's Play range and the corduroy...the green overalls, the pink pinny and the sleeveless hoody in blue.

Both Nate & Kate will be arriving in Australian stores within the next couple of months.

Current range...Lily Pond designed by Wendy Slotboom. This range has just arrived in Aussie shops so keep a look out for it as it's gorgeous!

New range:Flolklorica - designed by Julie Paschkis - a wonderful mix of vibrant folk art with a medieval/South American twist. I'm not sure if that makes any sense but it is so different to anything else in the market and it looks fabulous!

The panel

New range: Frolic. I love this range...it's so cute, fresh, with a modern twist.

Northcott have a wonderful range coming out called Stonehenge. Designed by Sunshine Cottage, it looks like natural marble in a variety of shades.

How yummy do they look in this quilt?

...and this quilt?

Some of the fabric swatches in the range:

New range: Flight of the Dancing Cranes - designed by Ro Gregg - a wonderful Asian inspired collection of fabrics with gold highlights and soft hues of coral pink, sage green, and golden syrup!

Some of the fabric swatches in this range:

The best part of Quilt Market is catching up with friends that I only see twice a year and making new friends: McKenna Ryan and myself.

November 12, 2007

One of my favourite new ranges that was released in Houston is Lakehouse's range: Cherry Baby. It's soft colours of Aqua and pink are delicious. I can't wait to get my hands on some of this fabric and start playing.

I have to apoligise as the batteries in my camera were almost flat, so I had to take the photos without a flash. If you want to see some great photos of this booth then drop by Holly's blog. She'll be posting the photos up over the next week or so. The little dress is a pattern by Cheryl Winslow of Star shine Quilting. The alphabet quilt above is called Alphabet Soup and is designed by Holly herself. Holly has also designed the 1st quilt in this post. It's called Cherry Squares. I loved Tammy Tadd Designs booth. All of the samples were basically made from Lakehouse Fabric. It looked so vibrant and fresh. Tammy's new apron design "To Market to Market" looks stunning made up out of Cherry Baby and Le Belle Rose.

The quilt above is the new BOM designed by Elizabeth Scott of Late Bloomer Quilts. It's called "Flights of Fancy" and it uses the La Belle Rose range from Lakehouse. The bags around the quilt are designed by Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated.

I love this quilt - it's so much fun! "Cherry Baby" designed by Holly. She has a better photo on her blog.

You'll notice that I have a new button on my sidebar. I have to keep that a secret for a few days. It's a bit exciting though! I hope you're enjoying my visions of Market. More soon....Di